Today's Features

“We are going to take collective responsibility for this fiasco,” said Nancy Johnson, Friday evening, as she and Karen Hopkins gathered the cast of Little Town Players’ (LTP) 40th anniversary presentation.

The local theater group was making its final preparations for the free show it presented Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Johnson, Parkie Smith and Karen Hopkins planned and organized the entire show and it worked.

Bower Center for the Arts officially reopened its doors to the Bedford community Thursday with a ribbon cutting that cut the bow on the $1 million renovation and expansion project.

Dr. John Bower cut the ribbon, dedicating the building to his parents, Minnie and Mitch Bower. Dr. Bower and Edna Curry, the donors that made the Bower Expansion Project possible, attended Thursday’s opening and Dr. Bower recounted the history of his family’s journey that eventually landed them in Bedford.

Brigadier General Lapthe Flora recalls his first meeting with his platoon sergeant when, as a second lieutenant, he took command of of a platoon in Clifton Forge’s Company C. The sergeant was a Vietnam veteran.

Lydia Wentzel, a 2016 Liberty High School (LHS) graduate, now has one of her works of art hanging in the U. S. Capitol.
Lydia, with her parents, Jim and Terry Wentzel, and her LHS art teacher, Leslie Bowyer, went to Washington, D.C. Friday to be honored for her work.

Friday will be the last day for the Rwandan Hugs Thrift Store, located on North Bridge Street.

“We are closing June 24,” Nancy Strachan, president of Rwandan Hugs, said.
Hugs, which has been around since 2007, has operated the thrift store since August, 2013. The organization had a booth in the building for a year-and-a-half before that.

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation has been accumulating a collection of D-Day related artifacts and documents for nearly 20 years. One of the most unusual is a vintage bottle of Calvados, a Norman apple brandy. The bottle belonged to Earl Draper.

A sixth grader at Bedford Middle School, Dianne Fitzgerald performs at three local churches, including her home church, Big Island Baptist.
She’s also performed at other venues. One of these was the Pearson Regional Cancer Center, where she played to sooth patients as they received cancer therapy. Fitzgerald played classical music, hymns and “American classics.” She selected the music herself.

His parents initially thought he might have injured his leg in a fall so they took him to the doctor. An initial exam revealed Jake didn’t have an infection and that there wasn’t any break.
More tests were run and soon they realized the diagnosis was much worse.
Jake had cancer – specifically Ewing’s sarcoma.